‘I learnt a lot of things during the war, Irene,’ he said, after a
pause.   ‘Most of them of no use whatsoever.   But there’s one thing
I can’t unlearn, even if I wanted to, and it’s that life is very short,
and very precious, and if we can’t find a way to be happy in the
one brief span we’re allowed, then there really isn’t a lot of point
to any of it.’   He paused again and Irene finally turned to look at
him.   He smiled slightly, kindly, and she knew he lived in a
different world to the one she did.   ‘So I’ve a proposition for you,
and I don’t want you to think about it too much. We get so
tangled up in knots, we humans, trying to think everything
through, trying to guess at outcomes we can’t possibly know.   So
please just listen. I adore you. Marry me.’

"The Hiding Places 76 hb by  Katherine Webb"

August 1814  : Well, I still hate novels. They still seem to me to be tissues of exaggeration, simplification, a sweetness that falsifics; and now I know this truth from, as it were, the inside, having written one myself, and marked all the sleights and tricks required to tease out a very partial understanding, a perished cloth more holes than thread, into what seems a smooth continuous fabric.

"Golden Hill 335 hb by Francis Spufford"

Ten years. Everything can be divided into decades. Three of Brendan. One of Bruno. How many more did she have before her time was up? Two perhaps, three if she’s lucky? Measured like this how short it all is. We spend most of the first half of our lives getting used to it. Learning the ropes, making mistakes and preparing for what lies ahead. And, for a moment, there’s a feeling that it all finally makes sense, that we’ve arrived and understood something about the world. Then, before we know it, it’s all over. The tide coming in and washing away our footprints to leave an unmarked beach.

"Rainsongs Page 7 by Sue Hubbard"

You know the worst thing about this government? It’s the war on woke. Woke means caring for people and it can only be a good thing to care for people no matter what.”

Chinese

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/24/jeremy-hunt-fac...

The pleasure of what we enjoy is lost by wanting more

Chinese

...few things are so important you would risk your life for them, but all sorts of things are important enough to risk somebody else’s life.

Chapter 12

I always thought people like us needed people like Raphaëlle to cope with certain situations but it is way more complex than that.

The world is made up of our differences.    It needs people like us, who only see the coloured stains and not the landscape, and it needs people like Raphaëlle, who only see the landscape even if it sometimes leads them to lose their judgments.  It is only when we are together that we can see the entirety of the picture.    One cannot work without the other.

"Astrid Et Raphaelle" S02 E01

"Would I that he was not here now, but was then, than he never was here at all’"

Freya North